Just finished my.. third.. re-read of the series and just realized that aside from the Aethan Dor, I don't think I've seen shields mentioned in any part of the series. With the heavy use of bows and crossbows, one would figure that infantry units would be carrying shields. But as far as I've been able to detect (I have been skimming) shields are never mentioned :o

 

Please tell me I'm wrong or feel free to discuss why you think this is!

Well, the Aiel have shields. They bang their spears on them. Also, I seem to recall the Band using them, perhaps at the end of KoD?

didn't the legion get mentioned as having shields? I also think that shienarians are mentioned as having them in tGH

Armies carry shields (and like the band, only some crossbowmen did).  Not your every day, run-of-the-mill warriors/warders.  Shields are heavy, bulky things.  You don't want to be carrying them around everywhere you go.

 

Add to this that the majority of swords in WoT are 2 handers...  Shienarans, the samurai(ish) curved blades that many use, etc. make shields obsolete.

 

The Aiel carry bucklers made of wood and leather.  A much more useful tool for them, since many spears would be thrown at the beginning of a battle, along with their prodigious use of the short bow.

Yeah, the Legion was novel in that they had 1-2 ranks of shieldmen who had only the shields out (maybe they had swords or similar if they lost their shields?) and then a whole bunch of ranks of crossbowmen. I don't remember any other military group to be described with shields, aside from Aiel bucklers. The Shienarans usually had 1-2 swords on their backs, as well as axes or maces or shortswords on their belts, so I bet they didn't carry shields.

 

Good thing to notice =)